


Please...

by Altiria



Series: Whumptober 2020 [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Fred Weasley Dies, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 07:42:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26848366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altiria/pseuds/Altiria
Summary: In the end Holly can’t live without him. So she decides, quite simply, that she wont’t.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Fred Weasley
Series: Whumptober 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946422
Comments: 13
Kudos: 271





	Please...

_"Stop, please- please don't say it- please!"_

_"Please… don't be dead-"_

_"You need to cry, Holly, you need to accept it- just- just get it out, and you can move on- wait, Holly!"_

_"I can't live without him-… Holly-… what am I supposed to do without him-"_

They were wrong in the end. Everyone told Holly that she'd get over it, that she'd find love again, that she'd be okay. They told George the same thing. Told them both that they were better off, and some even whispered- whispered that they were so much better off together. As though Holly could just get over Fred because George looked the same. Those words, Holly had been haunted by those words for months. Haunted by then mentally long after the wounds on her knuckles healed. 

"I don't see why she's so sensitive about it; no one can tell them apart anyway."

That had been the comment to send Holly over the edge. To make her stride into that room and pull the necklace from where it was hidden. Those were the words that had her looping that one of a kind bit of ancient magic around her neck. The ones that made Holly realize that she really didn't care about the time-line anymore. She no longer cared to preserve it. Not when the sheep would keep at her, not when she was alone- 

Holly placed her fingers on the metal, on the circle and the dial sitting there, and she heard a broken voice pipe up from behind her. He was the one person that could make her stop now, the only one to make her hesitate. 

"You're going then?" 

Holly turned and looked at George. He knew her, knew her like Fred had but in a different way. George was her brother, where Fred was her better half. George was the person who knew her best now that Fred was gone, and she knew him just as well. He was the only one to understand her when she continued to mourn after everyone else started to recover. He was the one to hold her during her countless nightmares after the war ended. To offer her a plan B when Ron turned his back again when Holly refused to become an Auror, or go back to Hogwarts like Hermione wished. George was the only one to know she could still speak to snakes and that the headaches from the Horcrux had never gone away after his' defeat.'

She didn't feel unsure as George came up to stand behind her. He didn't judge, and she was sure she was making the right choice for her. But… he could stop her, she'd let George and George alone do that.

"Will you come?" Holly asked. 

George shook his head, unwashed hair swinging. Neither of them had the energy to really bathe, let alone eat, this week. Not with the anniversary of Fred's death so close at hand. "I may get him back like that… but the knowledge… it would put us out of sync, neither of us could handle that." Not being two halves of a shared soul, it just wouldn't work. "Do you have a plan?" 

Holly bit her lip, she forced herself to look at him and admit the truth. "Would you hate me if I said… that I want to return Tom's sanity to him?" 

"No." George reached up and brushed the ancient necklace, ran a finger along the metal, "no, it wouldn't surprise me. Not after everything we've learned and experienced." Voldemort would never be gone. Oh, everyone thought Holly had defeated him. She'd made it relatively… convincing. But there was a reason she continued to have headaches, a reason she still spoke to snakes. As it turned out, no matter what Snape and Dumbledore thought, 'death' did not destroy a Horcrux in a living host. Not unless they were beheaded with a basilisk coated sword… and really wasn't really up to suffering that fate. Not for the sheep. 

Holly, well… she'd often thought what she would have done differently if given a chance; which she did considering the necklace. One of the things she'd decided was that if Tom could be returned to sanity, she might just work with him. Because what other choice did Holly have? She was eternally tied to the man unless she wanted to die. It was work together forever, die, or fight him eternally. 

"Will you hate me for it?" Would his past self despise her? Would Fred?

George shrugged: "Can't really speak for my past self, but if I'm honest… probably not. We were always at the edge of dark magic, one push, and we'd have turned… if you'd- if you'd be dark, I'm sure we would have followed." Even at the cost of his family. George knew Fred would have gone willingly after Holly, his twin had been utterly gone for Holly Potter from day one. And George would always follow Fred. 

"And if I avoid the war entirely? If I steal you two away, make a truce with Tom, and just run?" 

"Then so be it," George moved forward and cupped her cheeks, "you deserve to rest Holly, whatever path you decide on. As long as Fred-… as long as Fred survives it, and we're together in the end. Then so be it." 

George wiped the tears slipping from her eyes away, patted down the mess that was her hair one last time, and kissed her forehead. He couldn't watch Holly do it; he was as tied to her as he'd been Fred. George shared Fred's soul and shared his connection to Holly, but they treated that connection differently. George had already lost Fred, he knew, and Holly likely suspected that losing her would kill him. They didn't know what would happen once she used the necklace, but… George would be dead either way. Perhaps that was why Holly had hesitated in the end. Either George would be erased from time, or he'd just erase himself, or… in the best case, he'd simply change as she changed time and the fate of the world.

"Good luck Holly." Whatever fate that lay before him, George accepted it. As long as they were happy.

"I'll see you soon, George." 

Holly stepped back, turned the dial- and the world twisted away. 


End file.
